Some Big Wigs Might Be Called Out of Touch, but Probably Not Overturned

Mark Day of Vista heard a radio traffic reporter warn of an overturned “big wig” on the Santa Monica Freeway.

Said Day: “Had she not corrected herself immediately, the question might have been, ‘Is it the mayor, the police chief ... ?’ ”

Guide to Adventurous Dining: The specials du column (see accompanying) include:

* Veal Marsala at a hefty price. But, points out Tom Duval of Long Beach, look at the container it’s served in: “It may be a bargain after all.”

* Some lemon chicken served in a sauce that “you better not get in your hair,” notes Susan Avallon of Mar Vista.

* Proof that in health-conscious Southern California, even the cabbages work out, as the offering from Lark Zonka of Studio City indicates.

* And, for dessert, some extremely large sweets. “How do they get the ovens to fit inside the pies?” asked Glenn Glazer.

Legal tangles: “Some years ago, I asked a client to send me the originals of a large number of document files that were needed in connection with some litigation,” said attorney Jeff Pollak.

“The client wrote back to say that he would send the ‘voluptuous’ files as soon as they could be copied.

“Though he obviously meant ‘voluminous,’ I was single at the time and could hardly wait to see those files.”

Before we pass on Pasadena: I made a list of offbeat references to the Rose Bowl city on TV and in the movies. Peter Falk’s “Columbo,” for instance, asked if it was “spelled with two Ns?”

Rod Doty has another.

“In ‘Blast from the Past,’ ” he said, “Brendan Frasier is about to emerge into what his mother thinks is a post-nuclear war world full of mutants. And she urges him to find a nice girl to marry; if possible, from Pasadena.”

SigAlert of the Century: I must apologize for failing to observe the 30th anniversary of one of Southern California’s greatest traffic snafus.

On April 6, 1974, the day of the California Jam rock festival in Ontario, a 13-mile jam prompted an estimated 1,000 drivers to abandon their cars on the San Bernardino Freeway (a catastrophe only slightly less serious than a nuclear war). They “decided walking to the grounds was easier ... “ columnist David Allen of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin noted.

Former CHP Capt. Worley Jones told Allen that 525 vehicles were towed that day. One of the cars had been stolen from Indiana. “The guy came to collect his stored vehicle,” Jones said. “So we stored him too.”

Mondegreen of the Day: “Like most 5-year-olds, I loved sloshing through mud puddles,” recalled Bettie Brand. “And so, when the congregation sang ‘Up From The Grave He Rose,’ I joined in, lustily thinking what fun it would be ‘Up On The Gravy Road.’ ”

miscelLAny: I attended an Angels game and noticed that it’s a beach ball-friendly zone. In contrast to Dodger Stadium, security folks at Angels Stadium do not try to stop the fans from batting around the air-filled spheroids in the stands.

Which is a shame, I think we can all agree. There are few things more entertaining at Dodger Stadium than watching a middle-aged guard lunging for one of the floating balls.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.